diff --git a/bin/ansible-connection b/bin/ansible-connection
index 8e9114817c..fde1883e1f 100755
--- a/bin/ansible-connection
+++ b/bin/ansible-connection
@@ -249,7 +249,7 @@ class Server():
                 break
             time.sleep(1)
             timeout -= 1
-        return (0, self.socket_path, '')
+        return 0, b'\n#SOCKET_PATH#: %s\n' % self.socket_path, ''
 
 
 def communicate(sock, data):
diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/persistent.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/persistent.py
index 9b0df90cbb..7c7aa53208 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/persistent.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/persistent.py
@@ -66,11 +66,12 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
         (stdout, stderr) = p.communicate()
         stdin.close()
 
-        return (p.returncode, stdout, stderr)
+        return (p, stdout, stderr)
 
     def exec_command(self, cmd, in_data=None, sudoable=True):
         super(Connection, self).exec_command(cmd, in_data=in_data, sudoable=sudoable)
-        return self._do_it('EXEC: ' + cmd)
+        p, out, err = self._do_it('EXEC: ' + cmd)
+        return p.returncode, out, err
 
     def put_file(self, in_path, out_path):
         super(Connection, self).put_file(in_path, out_path)
@@ -90,5 +91,16 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
         socket path exists. If the path exists (or the timeout has expired),
         returns the socket path.
         """
-        rc, out, err = self._do_it('RUN:')
-        return to_text(out, errors='surrogate_or_strict')
+        p, out, err = self._do_it('RUN:')
+        while True:
+            out = out.strip()
+            if out == b'':
+                # EOF file found
+                return None
+            elif out.startswith(b'#SOCKET_PATH#'):
+                break
+            else:
+                out = p.stdout.readline()
+
+        socket_path = out.split(b'#SOCKET_PATH#: ', 1)[1]
+        return to_text(socket_path, errors='surrogate_or_strict')